


Child of Torchwood

by merryghoul



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Movie Fusion, Community: reel_torchwood, Gen, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-13
Updated: 2011-12-13
Packaged: 2017-10-27 07:02:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/292923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Torchwood (and associate) drive across the Welsh countryside for a special delivery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Child of Torchwood

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the fourth round of reel_torchwood, prompt Children of Men.
> 
> AU after “Reset.” Set after Children of Earth, but the events of Children of Earth never happened. Some aliens and objects from Doctor Who are mentioned, but no major Doctor Who spoilers here.
> 
> Fusion with _Children of Men_ (the 2006 movie), and contains spoilers for that movie. Children of Men (2006) tag removed 2/2/14.
> 
> Formatting changes made 2/2/14.
> 
> With thanks to my beta hollymarchosias.

_And now, in breaking news, the BBC has recently learned the last person to have ever been born in the world, Lauren Eastwick, was run over today by a military patrol car on Union Street in Plymouth this morning. The officer who ran over her says he did not mean to kill her and was reporting for immigrant patrol duty near a port in Plymouth. Despite his protests of innocence, he has been arrested and placed into custody. His trial will begin this Friday, which will also be held in Plymouth. Lauren Eastwick was born to Susan and Gregory Eastwick on December 4, 1991. She was a well known celebrity, flying across the world to meet with people as varied as heads of state and talk show hosts. Lauren Eastwick was 18 years old. The BBC will shortly play clips from Lauren’s last interview with the Associated Broadcasting Company of the Philippines._

_Meanwhile, Newcastle Emlyn, located in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire county-towns in Western Wales, was obliterated in the Carmarthenshire Wars between the Blowfishes, the Welsh-based pro-immigrant and pro-alien group made up of humans and fish-like aliens also known as Blowfishes, and the military. Military strategists believe the Blowfishes are trying to divert the military’s patrol of the coastal town of Fishguard and surrounding areas by bombing towns in Carmanthenshire and starting battles there. Former residents of Newcastle Emlyn were relocated to Carmanthen, now a military safe haven for civilians._

_I’ve just been informed that we now are ready to play Lauren Eastwick’s last interview…._

“Tosh, will you cut that programme off?” Gwen asked. She was wearing baggy black clothes. “I want you to look up something for me.”

Tosh turned off the news programme playing on the mainframe. “Sure, Gwen. What do you want me to look up for you?”

“A spaceship that’s been spotted in western Wales. Supposed to be run by some group calling themselves Mission: Repopulate.”

Tosh typed “Mission: Repopulate” into her computer.

“Can you find out the name of their ship?”

“It’s called...the _Earthbound_. The ship is currently two miles off the coast of Goodwick.”

“Thanks, Tosh.”

***

“Ianto, has Gwen come in yet? I’m hearing news of a Weevil outbreak at Debenham’s. We might need the whole team for this one.”

“No, Jack, she hasn’t come in yet.”

“Hey, Owen,” Jack yelled, “have you seen Gwen?”

“Haven’t seen her come in today, Jack.”

“Tosh?”

“I haven’t seen her, Jack.”

“Did she say anything about not coming in today to anyone?”

“Not to my knowledge, Jack. But yesterday she asked me about Mission: Repopulate.”

“Tosh, why did she ask you for that information?”

“I’m not sure. I’m not even sure about how she even knew about that.”

“It’s like Flat Holm all over again,” Jack whispered to himself. “Tosh, where did you tell Gwen Mission: Repopulate was located?”

“Off of the coast of Goodwick.”

“Call Rhys and see if he went to work.”

Tosh called Rhys’ cell phone. Rhys didn’t answer. Tosh checked the mainframe.

“Jack, Rhys didn’t check into work today, but his lorry’s not there either.”

“And they’re heading towards war country. Shit. Ianto, I need you to pick us up near the lift and prepare to stop at a Chinese restaurant. Tosh, I need you and Owen to get ready to get on the lift in five minutes. We’re going on a day trip.”

***

An army lieutenant stopped the Torchwood SUV near the northern Cardiff city limits. A makeshift arm went down near the M4. Ianto rolled down his window.

“Are you on official military business, sir?”

“We’re Torchwood,” Jack said.

“The motorways are closed for all non-military vehicles. We advise you to take the A48 out of Cardiff if you’re going on non-military business.”

“We can’t go all the way down the A48. It’s an emergency. The Blowfish are planning to interrupt an immigration protest in Swansea.”

“No exceptions.”

“Hit it, Ianto!”

Ianto rolled up his window and slammed through the arm blocking the way to the M4. The lieutenant pulled out his gun and attempted to shoot at the SUV’s tires. He missed them completely.

Ianto drove as fast as he could on the M4.

As the SUV neared a traffic circle that would take them to the A48, across Newcastle Road, a sign on the left side of the M4 exploded. The sign fell in the middle of the highway, forcing Ianto to slam on the SUV’s brakes and swerve to protect the SUV from running into the burning sign. There was another sign on the side of the M4 that was charred and melted. Military cars blockaded the junction between the traffic circle and the M4. Guns were aimed at the SUV.

“This is the worst possible thing that can happen to us today,” Ianto said as he hit the brakes on the SUV.

Over a megaphone someone said “Get out of the SUV with your hands up.”

The Torchwood team opened their doors with hands raised and stepped out of their SUV. An officer removed the team’s weapons, cuffed them with plastic ties and pushed them into a military police car. Some officers extinguished and moved the falling sign to the side of the road. Another officer took the Torchwood SUV.

***

The army took Torchwood to a farm just off of the A48. Nearest to the road off the A48 was a farmhouse; beside it was a small lorry as well as a few military police cars. The soldiers walked Torchwood to a barn and forced them to sit on hay before leaving.

“So, did anyone manage to bring any knives with them?”

The team looked at Jack.

“Plastic knives? A pocket knife? Scissors?”

Jack moved his arms. They were free.

“Huh?”

He stood up and turned around. It was Rhys. He was holding a pocket knife.

“Gwen wants to talk to you. She’s in another part of the barn.”

“How’d you get here? Attempting to barrel down the M4 like we did?”

“Is there any other way? She’s in the cow stables.”

Jack walked towards the cow stables.

“Well, aren’t you going to free us?” Owen asked.

“Gwen told me not to free you lot until she was done talking to Jack.”

“Rhys, the army took our weapons and our SUV. I would like to have my gun back in case one of them shoots us. Gwen can get mad at us later.”

“And if we don’t get our weapons back I guess we’ll have to resort to aikido.”

“Shut up, Ianto.”

***

Gwen, still wearing baggy clothing, was standing in the middle of the cow stables.

“Gwen.”

“Hello, Jack.”

Jack stood in front of Gwen.

“I thought you stopped going after your own vendettas with everything you think is wrong.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t show up to work today, but I had to leave to save my own life. Remember that case we took about a few months ago when we were investigating the death of a young woman? We tracked her down to that hospital and found out that not only she was pregnant, she gave birth to a stillborn baby.”

“And the hospital killed her. They were planning to blame Ianto on the murder.”

“I only told Rhys...well, up until now. It’s not that I don’t trust Torchwood with this secret, and I still respect Owen as a _teammate,_ but Torchwood isn’t equipped to handle this. Mission: Repopulate is.”

Gwen lifted up her loose shirt. She was nine months pregnant.

“Gwen, you shouldn’t be travelling in your condition. I’m amazed you haven’t given birth yet. Which reminds me, _never_ let me tell you about the time I was pregnant. Those were some of the worst days of my life.”

“I made it this far, didn’t I? I didn’t want to travel—I was hoping maybe another ship would show up over Cardiff or Swansea. But that case with the murdered pregnant girl must’ve scared them into staying far away from the Welsh cities.”

“Listen, I’ll help you get to Goodwick, okay? But I don’t want you in the lorry. I want you in the SUV. I’m sure Owen won’t mind riding with Rhys. I only wish you told me earlier—I would’ve found something to help you get there. Hell, I could’ve tried to get the _Earthbound_ to Cardiff somehow.”

“Thank you, Jack.”

“You do know the rest of the team will know you’re with child from this moment on?”

Owen walked into the cow stables with a gun in his hand. Rhys and the rest of the team were following him. “Jack, here’s”—

There was an awkward silence as the others viewed Gwen’s pregnant belly.

“I knew it all along,” Tosh said.

“It was pretty obvious, wasn’t it?” Owen added. “Out go the tight fitting jeans and screened t-shirts and in comes the, well, not as tight fitting jeans.”

“What the others said.” Ianto shrugged.

***

The team snuck out to where their SUV and Rhys’ lorry were at on the farm. Both vehicles were guarded by two enlisted soldiers. Ianto snuck out behind the guy guarding the SUV and knocked him out with his pistol. He searched the guy for the SUV’s keys and found them in one of his pant pockets.

“I guess absolute power corrupts to the point of extreme carelessness.”

Ianto got in the SUV and drove it to the barn. Jack carefully put Gwen in the SUV. Tosh and Jack climbed in afterwards.

Rhys snuck up behind the soldier guarding his lorry with a rag. He gagged the solider and threw him on the ground. Owen tied the soldier’s hands and feet with a rope he found in the barn. They both climbed in the lorry.

The sounds of the SUV and lorry starting alerted the rest of the soldiers on the farm. They ran outside and started shooting at the SUV and lorry as they returned to the A48.

***

The SUV had turned into another traffic circle on the A40 when what sounded like a huge gush of water hit the bottom of the floor.

“Ianto, I think we need to stop the SUV,” Gwen said.

Ianto sighed. “Why did I feel like this was going to happen today?”

Ianto drove until there was a space to pull over on the side of the road. Rhys’ truck followed the SUV’s lead. Owen and Rhys climbed out of the truck.

“If you tell me one more story about how you almost bowled a perfect game, Rhys....”

The two rushed to the SUV when Ianto opened it. “Gwen’s in labour,” he yelled.

“Is she okay?”

“Does ‘she’s still breathing’ count as okay?”

Jack opened the back of the SUV. The other guys moved Gwen to the back. Three hours later, as the sun was setting over Wales and with Jack as her birthing coach, Gwen gave birth to a baby girl. Owen clamped the umbilical cord and let Rhys cut the girl free from the cord. Once the placenta was expelled from Gwen’s body, the team left the parking area.

***

“You see, before everything had to happen today, I was going to leave work, go to a bar and shag a bird.”

“You couldn’t shag a bird if you tried.”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that. Instead, I had to give birth to a baby. I mean, a baby is a wonderful thing, but babies should be born in hospitals. That is, hospitals without nurses draining blood out of women who fail to give live birth. And now I’m in the basement of a church in Whitland, which is now a bloody ghost town, looking for some towels for this baby while you’re looking for coffee.”

“If you had some right now, would you feel a little less grumpy?”

“No.”

“Oh.” Ianto’s torch shone on a coffeemaker and coffee still in a crate in the basement. Ianto turned the torch off and picked up the crate. “See you upstairs!”

Owen groaned.

***

As Owen still searched for medical supplies in the basement and Ianto brewed the coffee, Rhys and Gwen were sitting on a pew. The baby was swaddled in Rhys’ jacket, sucking from one of Gwen’s teats.

“Jack, I have bad news,” Tosh said, looking up from her computer. “The Blowfishes have snuck into Fishguard. There’s going to be another battle tomorrow morning. It seems the Blowfishes and the military are fighting for the _Earthbound_.”

“We’ll stop them both. We’re Torchwood.”

***

The next day the team left the church and drove 45 miles to Goodwick. Before the team reached the town of Scleddau there was an army lieutenant with a guard post and arm over the road. Ianto rolled down his window.

“I’m sorry, sir, but this part of the county is closed for the day. Fighting against the military and Blowfishes today. If you forgot something at home I suggest you wait until the military reopens the area.”

“We don’t live here, sir.”

“Well, why in the hell are all you people here? For a fishing vacation on the worst possible day of the year?”

“We have a good reason.”

Ianto rolled down the window beside Gwen’s seat to reveal Gwen and her daughter, swaddled in the towels Owen found in the Whitland church. The guard walked to the open window. He silently went back to the guard post and raised the arm. Ianto rolled up the windows. The team continued travelling down A40.

In the distance the port town of Fishguard was burning. Huge patches of black earth covered fields. Pieces of wooden fences were still smoking. Houses had broken windows and burnt-out sections of walls and corners.

As the team turned down the street leading towards the parrog, the _Earthbound_ was visible over the Irish Sea, hovering well above the battle. It left a shadow over the parrog and it looked like the _Titanic_ —the spaceship built by Max Capricorn.

A missile went through Rhys’ lorry.

Ianto stopped the SUV. Gwen and her daughter, Jack, Tosh and Ianto quickly exited it. The back of the lorry, stopped near the end of an intersection, was on fire.

Owen and Rhys ran towards the rest of the team in the SUV.

“If I knew driving a truck was this risky, I would’ve quit a long time ago.” Rhys was puffing hard. By the time he reached the team he fell on his knees. “Is she okay?”

“The baby? She’s okay, Rhys. We’re all okay.”

Jack pointed to a land strip in the middle of the sea. “We need to get to the peninsula. I think we can attract the ship’s attention if we run out there.”

“Jack, I don’t think we can _all_ run on that peninsula. It’s so slim. We could fall into the sea. And it seems like there’s a standoff down the street.”

Jack looked back at the peninsula. “You know what, Gwen? You’re right. Tosh, Owen, Ianto, cover us. I’m escorting Gwen, Rhys and the baby to the peninsula. ”

Jack ran in front of Gwen and Rhys. Gwen held the baby close to her chest. They ran down the street leading to the parrog. Tosh, Owen and Ianto followed them, staying a close distance behind. The Blowfishes, human and Blowfish alike, were shooting against some army vehicles and personnel in a parking lot across the road.

Jack waved his hands. “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”

All of the human Blowfish members and several alien Blowfish put their weapons down. Two of the alien Blowfish pointed their guns directly at Jack, Gwen, Rhys and their daughter. Jack stopped the three behind him.

As soon as the guns were pointed the Blowfish were shot in the head by Tosh and Owen. Ianto turned around and pointed his gun at the soldiers and the Blowfish members. Jack, Gwen, Rhys and their daughter started running again.

The _Earthbound_ party had finally reached the peninsula in the middle of the parrog; they started running down it. En route to the very end of the peninsula, a bullet from a Blowfish submachine gun hit Jack in his head.

The rest of Torchwood stopped where they were, the armed members still holding on to their guns. The baby girl was visible in Gwen’s arms.

Shouts of “Hold your fire” could be heard on both sides of the parrog. The armed members of Torchwood laid their guns on the ground.

Gwen, Rhys and the baby walked towards the end of the peninsula. A beam from the _Earthbound_ lowered over the three of them and lifted them onto the side of the boat.

“Jack?” Gwen yelled. “Jack? I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’ve decided to name my daughter Anwen.”

“Wait, our daughter’s going to be named Anwen? I don’t remember us having a discussion on possible baby names for this child.”

“Anwen can have your last name.”

“So officially I have no say on our daughter’s name.”

“She has your last name, Rhys. What else do you want, a nickname like Blanket?”

Anwen cooed as Gwen, Rhys and she climbed on board the _Earthbound._

Jack gasped as his body healed from the gunshot wound. The rest of the team had surrounded him.

“Gwen’s gone,” Ianto said.

“I know. She said her daughter’s name was Anwen. I’m not sure why she named her that, but I think she wanted Anwen to remember she was Welsh.”

“When did she tell you that, Jack?”

“Before she climbed on the boat.” Jack stood up. “So, gang, looks like the fighting in Goodwick’s stopped for the day. How about we get some food...in...”

“We can try St. David,” Tosh replied. “It’s about 15 miles away.”

“How about we get some food in St. David?”

The team walked back to the SUV as the _Earthbound_ sailed away from Goodwick.


End file.
